mucked: (☂ call off the search for your soul)
Peggy Carter ([personal profile] mucked) wrote in [community profile] entrancelogs2018-02-01 07:03 am

open » i've got an atlas in my hands

Who: Peggy Carter + YOU
Where: Library, Rabbit Hole Diner, and other locations.
When: Early Feb
Rating: PG-13; will warn for changes in individual threads.
Summary: A catch-all for the first half of the month. There are some open prompts under the cut, but I'm also posting some closed starters in the comments. Hit me up if you'd like something other than the options below.
The Story:
[ DURING february's first few days, peggy pays a few productive visits to the »LIBRARY. she arrives armed with a scrap pressed into her palm. the paper is thin and torn, jagged, from a puzzle book -- folded in threes with precision and hard corners forced onto its asymmetrical shape. while she walks from stack to stack she traces the list's edge with the pad of her thumb. in reality, she doesn't need it. she'd long-since memorizes the book titles recommended to her in order to bring her loosely up to speed with popular science. so the list is a flimsy talisman, maybe, but during these visits it represents purpose. forward momentum.

her reading list is accumulated over multiple days, as though some reflexive defense mechanism convinces peggy to take her time. patience is rarely her strongest suit but she nevertheless makes an effort, knowing that a rush will only leave her rudderless and once again without distraction. to that end, she allows herself to wander off-path. maybe she's come for non-fiction, but she detours through a shelf of thrillers and mysteries and adventure stories.

she touches the spines as she passes them by -- her little list peeking between her knuckles like an ace at the ready. peggy never intends to appear lost but catch her at an odd moment and she might want some help. after all, stark never gave her author names to go with the titles.

LATER, with her coursework assembled, she goes elsewhere to conduct her reading. a great deal of it happens behind her bedroom door as she readjusts to a solitary life now that jane has returned to her husband. but some of it happens at the »DINER. with a whole booth claimed for herself, she sits with the dust jacket removed so bystanders can't easily discern what she's reading stephen hawking's a brief history of time, incidentally. it takes some two or three chapters to really dig into work she couldn't already recognize in passing -- and, on occasion, she offers up an audible scoff when she finds herself confronted with a colourful explanation of scientific discovery which nevertheless somehow manages to neglect howard stark's contribution.

she orders a plate of chips (hot; crispy; salted) and implores the wait-staff to keep them coming. instead of tea, she asks for a milkshake. not a quarter of an hour passes before she's cracked open a journal and uncapped a pen. her annotations are, for the time being, made in pitman shorthand -- and so appear as a series of near shapeless scribbles to those who aren't fluent. even so, there's no secrecy behind that choice. merely a swell of impatience after she'd worked so hard to contain it earlier.

and yet peggy's not averse to interruptions. not exactly. she may not be the most welcoming conversation partner, nor is she particularly fond of idle chatter, but she doesn't chase off interruptions or inquiries.

OTHERWISE, known associates and strangers alike are free to run into her »OUT & ABOUT. whether she's 'commuting' from quarters to library or grabbing a quick breakfast in the dining room early in the morning. she doesn't have a precise schedule (on most days) but she's not impossible to chance upon. she's nearly always immaculate -- from heel to hair-pins. having a project in hand puts her in a better mood. ]
bravejemma: (smile)

[personal profile] bravejemma 2018-02-03 11:57 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, fun!

[Of COURSE Jemma would think being assigned reading is fun. She kind of wishes someone would take it upon themselves to assign her reading, if only for the comfort only doing homework sorts of things can bring.

Yes she's a total nerd, why do you ask.]

I suppose there have been quite a few of those between where you were and where I was.
bravejemma: (Default)

[personal profile] bravejemma 2018-02-04 03:33 am (UTC)(link)
Brief History of Time? It's brilliant.

[She probably read it when she was a teenager, but that's a little show-offy to share.]

Brilliant man, Stephen Hawking. Inspiring, in some ways.

[In other ways... less so.]
bravejemma: (Default)

[personal profile] bravejemma 2018-02-05 06:06 pm (UTC)(link)
[Jemma laughs at that, but quickly turns it into a demure little cough. What Howard Stark might have known about Veronica Lake's girdle, she could imagine, though she would rather not.]

Yes, it was quite a break through piece of work in that way. It's not precisely my area, so it was nice to read it would feeling like I was being talked down to.

[Good luck on finding a male scientist of a certain age -- or any age, really -- who won't do that.]
bravejemma: (Default)

[personal profile] bravejemma 2018-02-07 08:24 pm (UTC)(link)
[Jemma knew that story well enough and nods sympathetically.]

When you're a fourteen-year-old in a PhD program you get that a lot, too. More things change the more they stay the same, I suppose.
bravejemma: (small smile)

[personal profile] bravejemma 2018-02-10 01:58 am (UTC)(link)
[With a compliment like that from a personal hero, it's hard not to smile a little and blush. But other forms of excitement she mostly keeps tamped down and remains calm and collected.]

There's a lot of brilliant people at SHIELD. But it's good to be one of them.